I've been a consultant for a successful
direct sales company for 7 years. Within that time I was fortunate
enough to reach the top title in the
company, but that wasn't without a lot
of hard work or determination. Many may say that when you become successful
it's because of luck. "oh, she got lucky she got in on a ground floor
opportunity." or "he was at the right place or time." And their
hard work is often discounted. Many want a get rich quick idea, but I'm here to
tell you that there's no such thing. Even lottery winners have to wait
patiently, usually for many years, working jobs they may not like and hoping
that one day they will win AND if they do win, it's not always an easy process
of holding onto that money. But that's a topic for another day. Back to the
main point, today I would like to share with you the top 8 tips I have learned
in growing my business and how you can apply these tips into running your own
business.
1. Know Your Market
Before starting any business, whether direct
sales or your own small business, know the people you are going to sell it too.
Really think hard of who you want to target. Say you came up with a fabulous
idea for children. One would assume your
target market would be kids but think narrower. Do you want to target children
between the ages of 3 and 7 or 15 and 18? Would this idea interest parents of
those children? Knowing your market
allows you to know how to spend your time and money on advertising. If the idea is for younger children, you
probably would not want to put an ad in a local magazine that caters to the
teenage crowd. Or if you are into craft
shows, know your surroundings. If your
product is pricier, doing a craft show in a city where the median income is
lower than $60k might not get you the results you are looking for.
2. Branding
Now that you have decided on your market and
your product, you need to start branding. If you are a consultant for a direct
sales company, they already have a brand, so this means you must begin branding
yourself. Don't be afraid to be known as
the "cooking lady" or the "make up lady." Make sure
everyone you know, knows what you do. This is true for a start up business. You
are the brand until it grows and becomes a household name. Know your stuff, act
professional, and don't be afraid to learn and grow. No one became successful
without a learning curve.
Next on branding, is creating your logo. In creating the Garaging
Mavens, we knew it was very important to start off with our brand already in
motion. If you are really serious about making your business successful, you
must have a logo. If you don't know how to create one yourself, you can usually
find someone that can create one for you pretty inexpensively. Then, when
labeling any of your products, make sure your logo, or rather your business, is
represented. If anyone picks up something that you created or you sell it needs
to have your information on it. Very successful companies have a logo and it's
all part of their branding. For example, our logo is on EVERYTHING! From the
cloth labels we sew into our goodies, sign in the shop, or the price tags on
our items. You can be sure that we do not want you to forget our name or logo.
Also, be sure that you have your contact information in as many places as you
can so that people can find you!
3. Social Media
Whether you want to or not, social media is
important in growing your business. Many successful companies I know have
exclusively grown their business through social media. It's super cheap,
because it's free! It can also target that amazing market of teenagers and
mommies! Plus, it allows you to stay in front of your market on an hourly,
daily, or weekly basis. Posting tips, tricks, or new fun items you have to
offer is a great way to share with your customers and share your brand.
Sometimes we may post pictures of our kiddos or what we may be doing, but that
adds to the brand in allowing others to get to know us. Also, utilize hash
tags. For some, you may be asking, "what the heck is a hash tag and what
good is it for?" Well let me tell you that a hash tag can be whatever you
want it to be. You can have a hash tag for your business or a random made up
one. To me, hash tags are like what parentheses used to be, or even fine print.
But the actual pound sign in the hash tag has allowed us to connect to millions
of people. For example, on Twitter or Instagram you can find new followers by
hash tagging anything and everything. So your product is targeting stay at home
moms. Use the hash tag stay at home mom or #sahm after you type the
description. When someone wants to view other pictures with that same tag they
can then have the possibility of seeing your picture, go to your profile, learn more and then begin following you. It's
really quite ingenious!
4. Work It!
No matter the business, ground floor or
not, you must never discount how hard
you need to work to get your business to grow. It's not an easy process, even
if others tell you it is, they're lying. Look at anyone you know that is
successful, has lots of money and all they could ever dream about. They had to start somewhere and that means
they had to start at the bottom and work hard to get to the top. The grass is
always greener so be sure to never discount that they worked their tails off, and
probably still are, because to be successful means to work, and work hard. You
may have the most amazing products out there but if you don't work to share
them with everyone you know, they won't sell. If people don't know who you are
or what you do, how will they know that they can buy from you! You don't have
to be obnoxious and call people 10 times a day to see if they have changed
their minds about purchasing from you, but branding yourself allows them to
know that if they ever need anything from you, they know where to get it. Like
I said, social media can play a great roll in this, but don't rely too heavily
on it. Get outside the house. Learn SEO for your website. Become part of your
local chamber of commerce, join networking groups, do as many shows or fairs
that your budget will allow. Work hard and you can reap the rewards, later.
5. Budget
I can't tell you how important a budget is
to your business. Try to never grow your business with a boat load of debt.
Some companies may require you to purchase a kit, but try to have a party or
orders ready from the start to make that money back from the beginning. If it's
a new start up, you might have to have a loan to get started. Whatever the
cost, try to have a plan to make that money back as soon as possible. Then with
whatever money you do earn, make sure you know where it needs to go and how it
needs to be spent. Many successful companies have failed because they did not
manage their money properly. Use a
spread sheet to keep track of your budget or programs like
youneedabudget.com.
6. Have a Business Plan
This leads me into my next step, which is to
have a business plan. Know exactly the purpose of your business. Have goals for
your first three months, 6 months, first year, where you see the business in 5
years. All of these are super important to help you stay on track. Know how
much you want to sell, expand, etc. Let your business plan be your treasure
map. If you have a solid plan, it will lead you to your treasure. It’s also important to have a business plan
so that it is a legitimate business in the eyes of the government, if they were
to ever ask for your business plan. You
can find an example of a business plan or how to write one by using the
wonderful world of Google. Also,
remember to reevaluate your plan once a year to see if any changes need to be
made.
7. Keep Amazing Records
I can't stress to you enough how important
it is to keep amazing records. When it comes to taxes, it's even more
important. Having amazing records of how much you sell, how much your product
costs, how much your shipping charges cost, knowing the exact amount of sales
tax your charged, etc. can make it easier to keep track of year over year
numbers and it will make tax time super easy.
It’s also important to have a really great CPA. Make sure you have someone that knows either
small business or direct sales. Some
know both, some don’t know either, and some only know one or the other. For example, direct sales business owners
have different tax deductions than small business owners. So if your CPA does not have a full knowledge
of which deductions you can take advantage on, than you my friend will be
paying a lot more money OR not receiving as much money back as you should
be.
8.
Know Your Why
Last but not least, know your why. We use this term a lot in direct sales
because it’s super easy to invest $100, forget your why and quit. However, remembering your why can keep you
going year after year. If you own your
own business, it’s really important to remember your why so that when the tough
gets going you can easily remember the reason you are working so hard to grow
your business. Have a dream board in an
area that you can see everyday. Put up
inspirational quotes around your home or work space. When those whys change, create new boards and
new inspirational signs. Never forget
why you are doing what you are doing. If
you find yourself in a rut then reevaluate your why. Reevaluate the way you are running your
business and figure out what’s working and what isn’t. Our business will grow and change and so will
our whys. We must be flexible and
remember that this will happen and remember to be willing to change.
Never forget how amazing you are and can
be!! You have an inner strength within
you that you made need to draw on from time to time but you can be
successful!! You can work hard!! And you can have all that you want or
need! Do get out there and get going!
Much love!
Shellie
